Citation:

George, I., E. Thoma, R. Duvall, C. Croghan, M. Sather, S. Apodaca, P. Deshmukh, A. Scott, G. Henshaw, AND M. Miller. Field demonstration of novel sensor-based GC technologies to detect fugitive VOC emissions in Dallas, TX. AWMA Measurement Methods and Technology, San Diego, CA, March 08 - 09, 2022.

Impact/Purpose:

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions contribute to poor air quality in Texas and throughout the U.S. that can lead to ozone NAAQS exceedances and negative health effects due to elevated air toxic levels. It is critical to better characterize these VOC emissions, particularly fugitive emissions, that are difficult to measure and, therefore assess their air quality impacts. This work evaluates the utility of serveral next-generation emissions measurement (NGEM) tools, including sensor and gas chromatraphy based technologies,  to measure fugitive emissions in Dallas, TX. 

Description:

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions lead to adverse air quality and health impacts by contributing to ozone and particle formation. Furthermore, many VOCs are also hazardous air pollutants, or air toxics, that can contribute to deleterious health impacts on affected communities and industrial workplace environments. Fugitive and area source VOC emissions present a serious challenge in emissions detection, measurement and mitigation activities by industry and air quality regulators. Emerging cost-effective technological solutions are currently being developed and applied by regulatory agencies to address this challenge for more effective fugitive VOC emissions detection and for fenceline monitoring. Improved fugitive VOC emissions detection using these next generation emissions measurement (NGEM) tools can lead to significant benefits including improvements in local air quality, reduced negative health burden on affected communities, cost savings to industry, and safer industrial work environments.  This work will discuss the evaluation of two lower-cost field gas chromatographs (GCs) using novel GC and sensor technologies detection along with several low-cost VOC sensors as part of EPA’s Dallas NGEM Demonstration study to detect and identify fugitive VOC emissions in Dallas, TX. The performance of the field GC systems was evaluated through lab testing and a field intercomparison with a state-operated autoGC. The two field GCs are prototype instruments customized to measure BTEX and xylene, respectively to help locate an unidentified source(s) of BTEX emissions in the Dallas area. This work will discuss preliminary results from the GC field deployment that was conducted from December 2020 to May 2021 in Dallas, TX.

Record Details: